Send me your grandkid pictures.  I'll publish in The Daily Recap.  Should be fun.

Here are my three: Emma, 8; Max,18; and Mia, 5, with their new puppy, Chewy.

In early fall NCBC will be introducing our first mentoring program.  We’ll pair 10-15 expert players with an equal number of less experienced players who have been working hard to improve their game.  Over a three-month period, experts will help their stud­ents grow and develop.  We expect the pairs to play together at least once or twice a month and to spend time together outside the game to work on problem areas.

Twelve excellent senior players have already generously agreed to act as mentors.  We’re now looking for student players who’d like to capitalize on this great opportunity. Any­one with fewer than 150 master points may apply.

What will we expect of you?  A commitment of time and effort to improve your game. That might even include some outside read­ing or “homework” suggested by your men­tor. There’s no charge for the program but you may want to say “thanks” to your mentor by picking up his game fees or buying lunch once in a while.

If you’re interested, please tell

Carol Hargrave (200-7578, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ), or
Mary Ann Dufresne (592-4882, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ).

We’d love to put your name in the hat!

According to the July 9 minutes, published for logged in users only, the Board has enacted a final policy on strats.  Newcomers, except for NAP games, will continue to split at 20 and 100, yielding 0-19, 20-99, and 100-299.  NAP games cannot be stratified for non-life-master sections.

Open games will have floating strats, arranged as follows.  "In a Mitchell move­ment, the C strata will have a minimum of 5 pairs. The rest of the players will be divided as evenly as possible in the A or B strata. In a Howell movement, the C strata will have a minimum of 3 pairs. The rest of the players will be divided as evenly as possible in the A or B strata."

Furthermore, the Board says: "Stratification for each NCBC game will be at the discre­tion of the director after all names have been entered in the computer."

The previous strats of 1/3, 1/3, 1/3 was an interim policy until the July 9 meeting, and has now been revoked.